Italiano

Hi,

I have been watching the, albeit slow process, of many corrupt entities start to eat themselves from the inside out. Entities, being on many levels, ie indivuals, corporations, large organisations, governments, countries, continents and finally the globe.

I would compare what is going on with what happens with the negative emotion of hate:

"Hate does absoloutely no harm whatsoever to your enemy or the person hated, instead it is a like a poison that sits within, and slowly eats away at you from the inside out".

Italy is slowly caving in - Berlusconi is slowly caving in. The recent European polls saw a lot of leaders that had gone against the will of their populations and sold out their countries, start to lose ground.

Freedom House, a New-York based think-tank, downgraded Italian media from "free" to "partly free", putting the country on a par with Turkey.

"He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword", says an ancient proverb - and it appears to have come true in modern Italy.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the man who controls over 90% of Italian television, has received one of the most humiliating beatings of his political career by a disgruntled TV anchorwoman.

Controversial episodes which did not go down well with a significant share of public opinion included:

The sacking of two TV hosts, Enzo Biagi and Michele Santoro (the latter ran as a candidate with the Olive Tree along with Ms Gruber, and ranks fourth in the list of most voted candidates), and the axing of their popular talk-shows

The passing of a highly controversial new media law which allowed the premier to retain ownership of his three TV channels, one of which he would otherwise have been forced to sell

The closing down of a satire show which had attacked Berlusconi's still unsolved conflict of interest in its first episode

The resignation of Lucia Annunziata, chairwoman of the national broadcaster Rai, who denounced the fact that her board was being increasingly manipulated by the government with regard to appointments and editorial decisions

Berlusconi's refusal to let any opposition leader take part in TV talk shows he might appear on, because they were too "disrespectful" towards him.
Moderate journalist Vittorio Zucconi said Forza Italia, the party founded by the premier, had paid the price for an "overdose" or "indigestion" of Mr Berlusconi, who in recent weeks appeared on TV "at breakfast, lunch and dinnertime".

The left-leaning daily La Repubblica spoke of "saturation" and "boomerang effect" of what it branded "the military occupation of TV screens".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3810439.stm

So, there is plenty of good news around - wahey!

WR

JT